There was a runnaway and another derailment in SoCal this weekend. Here is a article about it. ============================================================
Redlands derailment injures two, causes fire
09:14 AM PDT on Sunday, August 27, 2006
By SARAH BURGE, IMRAN VITTACHI and DAYNA STRAEHLEY The Press-Enterprise
Two separate freight trains derailed in the Inland area Saturday, injuring two railroad workers and causing a fire on a toppled locomotive south of Redlands.
Seven Union Pacific locomotives fell on their sides in a derailment near San Timoteo Canyon and Live Oak Canyon roads at 9:36 p.m. Saturday, spilling diesel fuel that caused a blaze on one of the engines, according to California Highway Patrol dispatcher Mark Riconosciuto and Capt. Jim Fuller of the Riverside County Fire Department.
The cause of the crash was unknown, said Mark Davis, a spokesman for the railroad. Davis said he did not know how fast the train was traveling on the stretch of Union Pacific tracks along San Timoteo at the time of the crash.
Two Union Pacific workers were taken to area hospitals with minor to moderate injuries, Fuller said. One of the two injured railroad workers suffered at least two broken bones and the other had cuts and bruises.
The diesel fuel fire still smoldered in one of the locomotives at 6 a.m. Sunday, sending up black smoke.
The diesel fuel from the locomotives was the only hazardous material spilled, Fuller said. A hazardous materials crew from the Riverside County Fire Department was working to clean up the spill into Sunday morning.
Davis said each locomotive fuel tank can carries up to 5,000 gallons. Davis said he did not know how much fuel the locomotives were carrying, or how much fuel was spilled.
Crews worked through the night to clear the tracks of wreckage and deb
From what I gather the only unit on line was the lead unit. They were comming down Beaumont hill with the dynamics. The dynamics were not enough and when they realized they were in trouble they threw it into emergency. That kicked off the dynamics and compounded the problem. I don’t know if the independant brakes were not hooked up on the remaining units or not, I suspect not.
Mabee they should have just ran over the lawnmower.
A several million dollar learning experience. Two unconfirmed reports one says the crew bailed out when they lost the dynamics. The other says that the light engine movement needed a helper to get up the hill. Which suggests that it was shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise that they couldn’t control it going down the other side. Also unconfirmed is that this was a hospital movement.
…This sounds like a really weird one…Hope no one was seriously hurt.
It also sounds like some operational rule{s}, were broken.
Perhaps we do not know the full story yet.
And it sure will have been an expensive happening. From the report of the one burning might really push the cost high.
Dynamics on one engine {possibly}, trying to contain the speed of {was it 6 engines}, with roughly 1200 tons…Is that above the capacity of the one {if that’s what it was}, engine’s dynamic’s to hold their speed…?
Confirmed now, this was a “Hospital” train move. Modelcar, simple way to look at it, if the powered locomotive does not have enough Tractive Effort to pull the train up the hill it will not have enough dynamic braking effort to hold it back (negative tractive effort). Of course this assumes both sides of the hill have the same grade.
This was on that news companies web site today! Interesting note on needing hand brakes to stop the locos! It also says there were 9 locos and last 7 derailed.
Official: Crew tried to stop train
DERAILED: Union Pacific investigators would not confirm a union representative’s account.
##### 12:09 AM PDT on Tuesday, August 29, 2006
By DAVID DANELSKI and DUANE W. GANG The Press-Enterprise
A runaway string of locomotives was traveling about 80 mph when seven of the nine engines flew off the tracks Saturday night in San Timoteo Canyon, a union official said Monday.
Mark Zaleski / The Press-Enterprise
Union Pacific workers inspect locomotives Monday that derailed and crashed into a ditch near Live Oak Canyon and San Timoteo Canyon roads south of Redlands on Saturday.
…That’s quite a different story provided by CNW from a media account…9 engines now, not 7. Guess we’ll not really know the correct details until an official report is released.
Seems {from the above report}, there probably was all kinds of circumstances involved that led to the accident.
The two engines making it around a curve at a break neck speed that’s posted for 40 is pretty wild…Did the men ride out the run away on the front engine…? All kinds of questions.
Wonder what the grade of the long hill really is…?
Dude Chad, this was what I just emailed you about! I headed out here on Sunday not having a clue that all of this happened. I always take San Timateo Canyon Road, that parallels the double tracks, when I head out to see the in-laws in Beaumont. Generally in that canyon you can see about 4 trains as you drive 55mph without stopping. Anyway, as I was following the tracks one double stack was sitting, facing east where eastbounds never stop (double track), then a westbound passed followed by Amtak (always a good site to see). Next thing I know I came around the bend, and just about rear ended a goose neck flat bed rig. I stopped, though there wasn’t any guys flagging us to pass, and noticed that the whole area was full of large equipment. As I detoured away from the closed road, I noticed some engines and some M.O.W. equipment on the tracks. I just figured that they were doing maintainence on the tracks and the road at the same time. Boy, if I knew then what I know now, I would have some good pictures to show you guys. Sorry!
Zak, I just got your e-mail and sent a reply. You might want to check out the SoCal board, there is a bit more info over there (BTW- I finaly met Dave, engineco16, on the hill). I don’t think anybody got pictures though. I guess the CHP closed the road down so nobody could get in there.
Yep, that was what I noticed, but what pissed me off was the fact that there was all this equipment just sitting around on the roads and nobody was directing traffic. I could have been hit by opposing traffic or something as I went in, out, and around everything. I would have loved to have been able to see the engines on their sides, and I did see some engines but they were on tracks and didn’t look like they had any marks on them though.
